Doc's Talk: Using the false slogan that Al-Aqsa is in danger,

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Using the false slogan that Al-Aqsa is in danger,

Hamas has undertaken a campaign to put Jerusalem at the top of the Palestinian agenda. Its purpose is to undermine the Annapolis meeting and deflect attention from criticism of the massacre of Fatah supporters at the memorial rally for Yasser Arafat. Over the past few days Hamas has undertaken a campaign to put Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque at the top of the Palestinian agenda, exploiting the International Jerusalem Forum which met in Istanbul on November 15-17. The campaign is based on the false claim that Al-Aqsa mosque is endangered by tunnels being dug under it and the “invasion” of right-wing activists into the mosque precinct. 1 Abu Mazen is also accused of being willing to make concessions on Jerusalem in Annapolis .

2. Putting Jerusalem at the top of the Palestinian agenda and resurrecting slogans about the dangers to Al-Aqsa mosque enable Hamas to represent itself as working for a national Palestinian interest for which there is broad Palestinian, Arab and Islamic consensus. The campaign is also intended to undermine the negotiations Abu Mazen is conducting with Israel in preparation for Annapolis (called by Hamas “the shame and disgrace meeting”). In addition, Hamas wants to deflect Palestinian attention from the rising internal tension caused by the gunfire of Hamas security forces into the crowd at the Arafat's memorial rally in Gaza City . 2

3. The following are the main events in the campaign so far:

A mass rally in the Gaza Strip in defense of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque

4. On the afternoon of November 15 there was a mass rally in Gaza City in support of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque. Several thousands attended, 5,000 according to Hamas. Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV interrupted its regular programs and began broadcasting live from the rally.

Ismail Radwan , a high-ranking Hamas member in the Gaza Strip, spoke at the rally and incited the crowd with calls of “With spirit, with blood, we will redeem you, oh Al-Aqsa.” The main points of his speech were the following (Al-Aqsa TV, November 15):

1) Those who had come to the rally were there to express their strong opposition to “ the criminal attacks recently carried out against Al-Aqsa mosque .” Hamas warned the Zionist enemy against attacking the mosque, and if it did, “the world will be surprised by Hamas' response.” Ismail Radwan sent a message to the “jihad fighters” and the “operatives of the Palestinian resistance” [i.e., the Palestinian terrorist organizations] to get ready to defend Al-Aqsa mosque.

2) Al-Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem are the center of interest for the Arab-Islamic nations and not only the Palestinians . The Jerusalem Forum, attended by 5,000 leaders, intellectuals and “men of the resistance,” met in Istanbul for the sake of Al-Aqsa mosque. It is up to the Arab-Muslim peoples to go out into the streets and vent their rage and censure of the barbaric attacks the “Zionist enemy” is carrying out against Al-Aqsa mosque.

3) Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen should be wary of participating in the Annapolis meeting , “the shame and disgrace meeting, the concessions meeting…” The entrance of the Zionist enemy and groups of settlers into the Al-Aqsa mosque precinct “are preparation for what will happen at the Annapolis meeting.”

4) Hamas will not waive the principles of the Palestinian people . It emphasizes the “right to return” and the “option of resistance” [i.e., terrorism] as “the strategic option” for the liberation of all Palestine .

Statements made by high-ranking Hamas activists

6. On the evening of November 15 Hamas government prime minister Ismail Haniya delivered a speech emphasizing the “danger” to Jerusalem and the importance of the International Jerusalem Forum in Turkey . He related to Jerusalem at the beginning of his speech, and said the following (Al-Aqsa TV, November 15):

1) Israel continues damaging Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque . It is planning to excavate additional tunnels under the mosque, right-wing Israeli activists “invaded” the Al-Aqsa mosque precinct, and the Knesset passed a law regarding Jerusalem on the first reading. 3 “At the same time, [Ehud] Olmert demands that the PA recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish state as a condition for the success of what is called the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.”

2) Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque are in genuine danger which will not end until the “occupation” ends . The way to restore the Palestinians' national rights is to restore national unity. Otherwise success will crown the Israeli policies in favor of the Jerusalem's being a Jewish city, settlements and changes made in archaeological and historical sites to erase Jerusalem's identity.

3) The timing of the Israeli “attack” on Jerusalem and the Jerusalem with the Jerusalem Forum and the anniversary of the proclamation of Palestinian independence are all proof that Palestinian independence will never be genuine unless Jerusalem is the capital of the independent Palestinian state . Convening the International Jerusalem Forum illustrates that there is a Palestinian-Arab-Islamic consensus about not ceding Jerusalem and giving up of the refugees.

7. Salah al-Bardawil , Hamas faction speaker in the Palestinian Legislative Council, issued a press release on the last day of the International Jerusalem Forum. He called for urgent action “ to repulse the aggression against the holy places and to awaken an Islamic struggle to rescue the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque.” He said that “the [Israeli] occupation is deliberately committing a series of crimes against the holy places, burning them, destroying them and tunneling under them .” He stressed “the need to unite behind the resistance [i.e., the terrorist movements] as the only strategic option for restoring [Palestinian] rights and exposing the occupation's attempts [to act] against Jerusalem and the holy places” (Palestine-info Website, November 17).

8. On November 16 and 17 Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV broadcast propaganda-ridden programs and songs reiterating that “ Jerusalem is in danger ” and that Al-Aqsa mosque was exposed to Israeli attacks. On November 16 it went live from Istanbul and broadcast the speech made by sheikh Raed Salad , head of the northern faction of the Islamic movement in Israel . It also broadcast telephone interviews with Forum participants, including Muhammad Nizal , a member of Hamas' political bureau.

Processions organized by Hamas, including slogans warning against
making concessions on Jerusalem

9. On November 16 there were processions in the Al-Nuseirat and Al-Bureij refugee camps in the Gaza Strip “to rescue Al-Aqsa mosque.” Both Hamas and Fatah activists participated. Sheikh Yussuf Farhan , a Hamas activist, said that the goal of the procession in Al-Nuseirat was “to say no to the fall meeting [i.e., Annapolis ] and no to concessions on Jerusalem and the right to return.” He also condemned those “who want to sell Jerusalem for pennies,” and warned that “Hamas was almost at the end of its patience…” (Palestine-info, November 16).

10. In Lebanon , in the Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon , Hamas organized a procession as a show of solidarity with Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque, which led to tension between Hamas and Fatah supporters (Radio al-Sharq, November 16).

1 The elaboration of the false claim that Israel is causing damage to Al-Aqsa mosque can be found in the International Jerusalem Forum's closing statement. It states that “the dangerous damage [done] to the holy places of Islam and Christianity, especially Al-Aqsa mosque, and the excavations which threaten to collapse it in order to reconstruct The [original Jewish]Temple on the ruins are a threat to the peace and security of the region and the world…” (Middle East News Agency, Istanbul , November 17).

2 For further information see our November 15 Bulletin entitled “A record in Hamas' violent suppression of Fatah in the Gaza Strip” .

3 The law in question was proposed by MK Gideon Saar and passed on November 14 in a preliminary vote. According to proposed law, every change relating to the Jerusalem area will necessitate a 2/3 majority instead of a simple majority of 61 votes, as stated today in the basic Jerusalem law.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk